Spain's DTT earthquake: MTV leaves, Real Madrid goes free-to-air

Spain's DTT channels have started making their moves sooner than expected, with Real Madrid TV finally getting a national DTT licence by purchasing 25% of Net TV.

Over the past months, Real Madrid TV has doubled its efforts to get a free-to-air licence covering the whole country; it is currently broadcast on pay-TV. The channel will use Intereconomía TV's frequency slot.

However, Intereconomía TV won't be leaving DTT just yet, despite its financial difficulties. The group owns the Net TV multiplex, through which Intereconomía, Disney Channel, Paramount and, until now, MTV, were broadcast. According to Cadena SER, Viacom has decided to remove MTV from DTT after three years of free-to-air broadcasting brought very low audience figures. Its slot will be used by Intereconomía TV.

Spain's digital TV will incorporate these modifications from January, and more changes are anticipated due to the reorganisation of spectrum space. Still giving no a concrete date, the Government has said that up to nine channels will have to go to leave more space for the LTE 4G networks.